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Thursday, May 17, 2018

Aquinas on the meaning of life

My article “Aquinas
and the meaning of life” appears in the anthology The
Meaning of Life and the Great Philosophers, edited by Stephen Leach and James Tartaglia
and just published by Routledge. Lots of interesting stuff in this
volume. The table of contents and other information are available here.

1 comment:

Part of the essence of a finite sentient being is already to function with meaning. Meaning is a member of the equivalence class of necessary truths. And like other basic relations transcends any denial of it and is even assumed in such a denial.

More to the point, to question or deny the meaning of life assumes it, and this is part of the reason why dilettantes and anti-intellectuals don't start out with an explanation of what meaning itself *means*, much less why the question itself is even addressed in the first place. That latter would of course require some criterion for which questions "matter" and which do not.

If life did not have meaning, it's difficult to see how one could know that fact itself, or why the question or even the word itself could even possibly arise.

About Me

I am a writer and philosopher living in Los Angeles. I teach philosophy at Pasadena City College. My primary academic research interests are in the philosophy of mind, moral and political philosophy, and philosophy of religion. I also write on politics, from a conservative point of view; and on religion, from a traditional Roman Catholic perspective.